Friday, March 23, 2012

And today is going to be so busy! We still haven't packed......and we are driving, so that means packing way too much stuff, just because we can! lol

I haven't spent one single minute on my Jubilee quilt this week......and I don't know why! I wanted to, but it seems I only want to work on it when I know I can spend hours at a time doing it! Twenty minutes here and there is just not relaxing for me. It's either all or nothing!

I did spend yesterday trying to quilt up a quilt for our group charity project. Turns out, we have someone in town that should receive it, and I'd like to get it to them BEFORE I come back in the middle of April. If I can finish up the quilting on it, and sew down the binding, Pat (one of the gals from the group) said she would finish hand sewing down the binding. Yay! I'm doing just a simple wavy line down each seam......it's a stripey quilt, so I wanted the quilting to be stripey, too! I'm nearly done with the quilting......I should finish it tonight! Yay!

I do need to spend a few minutes today marking some fabrics with templates......for my handwork project on this trip. I know I'll want to sit and stitch here and there, so I really want to have something very portable with me. My plan is to make little LeMoyne stars from my civil war fabrics......about 3 inches finished. I've seen a bunch of these antique quilts out there, and just the other day, Barbara Brackman linked to a site of civil war quilts at a museum, and there was one in the collection with a fabulous striped fabric sashing! I'm in love!

So that's the plan for stitching on this vaca. Our trip starts with 5 days of golfing/antiquing our way down to Tampa (with a stop in Philly to see the bell!), and then visit with our cousins in Tampa for a few days, then the 5 days cruise to Mexico, and then visit some more in Tampa. When we leave, we are heading straight to visit at Suzanne's place in FL......you would recognize her as "Suzanne with the dump machine!".....now famous since Bonnie Hunter put her on her blog! Ha! We'll play a little golf with them, then continue our golfing/antiquing all the way back to Maine! So......I needed to prep for all of this golfing......

This is kindof my thing......I HAVE to have decorated golf balls......I just can't play with a plain ball! It doesn't feel right! I really like looking down at the little flowers just before I smack the snot out of it! Ha! It just make me happy! :o)

And yeah.....I usually get a lot of comments like....."Gee, someone has a lot of free time on their hands!"

And NO, I really don't......but this is a necessity! Really! My game just wouldn't be the same without the little flowers!

And on other non-quilty topics.......my hubby just finished making a kite for a friend of ours who does kite building workshops with kids.......and the kite came out REALLY great! It's the logo for his workshop business, and it flies like a dream!

Ok......I'm off to pack, stitch and mark fabric! Whew!

AND.......I'm officially NOT keeping track of my food starting tomorrow! I've been following Weight Watchers since the beginning of February, and I've lost 13 pounds since then. My goal was to lose 10 by our trip......so I'm totally jazzed about it all! I'm not even going to worry about it during our trip......and I'm eating every dessert I see on that dang ship! Ha! Cuz vacations for us are ALL about the food! Yum!

I just can't imagine how awful that must feel! Hopefully, they will be found. As she said, if everyone can check yard sales, flea markets, etc......they might turn up. Obviously when the punks stole the suitcase from her car, they had no idea what was in it, and will probably not care anything about them. Ugh!

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And.....thanks to everyone who sent me get well wishes.....I'm nearly back to normal (whatever THAT is!) :o)

Hopefully I will be quilting tomorrow and posting my progress.......I have less than a week until vaca! Yikes!

And today it was 80 degrees here in Maine.....in March! Woohoo! That just felt SO good!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

So I posted progress on the Jubilee Quilt Project Blog last week, but forgot to post here. Sheesh! So, to catch up, I've finished all 20 blocks, and now I've finished making the sashing strips.

I just need to square up the blocks,and put all the pieces together now. Yay!

Of course, I would get sick last night, with the crud that is going around! It's totally in my head and throat, all congested and can't breath or hear.......and my body feels like it's been hit by a truck! So I don't think I'll be doing any sewing tonight. Everyone here says this lasts about 4 days. I guess I can deal with that! Thank goodness I've still got about 10 days before my vacation, cuz NOTHING is going to mess with that! I just won't let it! :o)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

I've been working away on my Jubilee quilt.......and posted on the Jubilee Project blog. If you haven't been over there yet, check it out! Everyone posting is either preparing to turn 50, just turned 50, or has fond memories of 50! lol And the quilts are just a fun way to think about your life, your passion for quilting, and all the fun you can muster at this milestone!

Here is my progress on my quilt......I've de-papered and trimmed all 80 string pieced sections. And I've put together 5 blocks. They aren't trimmed down yet, I'll wait until they're all done for that.

I'm just loving everything about this quilt! Well.....except for having to take off the papers from the string piecing! There is so much static here, that they are sticking to EVERYTHING! That makes me crazy! But if that's the worst thing about my day......then life is good! :o)

And we are still in full winter-mode here......two days ago we got about 10" of snow, and last night another 3. Now we're having an icey rain,......fun!

On the right of those posts is a little stair way leading to our field. The low hanging branch is the actually about 5.5' off the ground. In the spring it's covered in beautiful white flowers.....I love it! I just barely have to duck to get under it, but everyone else always complains about it, and wants to chop it off! I just say......"You have to be smarter than the tree!" Ha!